The bald eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, is a large raptor that requires large trees for nesting, roosting and perching. The trees must be in areas where human activity is limited. Bald eagles are opportunistic predator-scavengers that consume many different prey species. They eat fish when they are available, but shift to a variety of other birds, mammals and turtles, both live and as carrion, when fish are scarce.

The Chesapeake Bay may once have provided habitat for as many as 3,000 pairs of breeding bald eagles. The population declined dramatically over the past three centuries due to habitat destruction, poaching and contamination by DDT and other chemicals. It reached a low of 80 to 90 breeding pairs in 1970. In 1972, the use of DDT was banned in the U.S. In 1973, the bald eagle was listed as endangered in the lower 48 states except for Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington and Oregon, where it was listed as threatened. After the DDT ban, the population slowly began to increase, and in 1995 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified the bald eagle as threatened throughout the lower 48 states.

In June 1999, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service introduced a proposal to remove the bald eagle from the endangered species list, and concluded that the national bird has fully recovered. At present, the proposal is temporarily on hold pending the development of regulatory changes to the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act that would address concerns such as habitat protection. However, scientists warn that the recent population increase could soon be reversed as the shoreline habitat that the eagle requires is developed.

Habitat and Life Cycle

• The bald eagle is found near large bodies of water throughout North America, from central Alaska and northern Canada to northern Mexico, Baja California, the Gulf Coast and southern Florida.
• Ideal eagle habitat consists of mature shoreline forests with scattered openings and little human use, near water with abundant fish and waterfowl.
• Sixty percent of eagle nests in the Chesapeake region are situated in loblolly pines, but they also use a number of other large, "super-canopy" tree species, including shortleaf pine, Virginia pine, white oak, chestnut oak, northern red oak, swamp white oak, tulip poplar, American beech, bitternut hickory, American sycamore, and American sweetgum.
• Nests can be up to six feet in diameter and weigh hundreds of pounds. They are usually constructed of large sticks and lined with soft materials such as pine needles and grasses.
• Breeding pairs of bald eagles mate for life.
• Females lay one to three eggs between January and March, with a peak in February. Incubation lasts for 35 days.
• Chicks typically leave the nest at 10 to 12 weeks of age. Occasionally young are blown out or fall out of the nest before fledging, but these young are cared for and many survive. Chesapeake Bay eagles leave their nests between May and July.
• Juveniles depend on their parents for a number of weeks after their first flights, but gradually learn to hunt and spend more time away from the nest.
• Young eagles do not develop the spectacular white head and tail until their fifth or sixth year.
• Adult bald eagles reach a size of approximately three feet from head to tail, weigh between 10 and 12 pounds and have a wingspread of up to seven feet. Females are generally somewhat larger than males.
• Eagles spend most of the daylight hours perched. Most hunting is done from a perch and most strikes at fish are made within 100 meters of the shoreline.

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Last modified: 1/29/04